The conservative McCain frequently finds herself at odds with her fellow panelists, who mostly lean to the left, but she doesn't make things any easier for herself by interrupting colleagues, challenging every perceived slight or occasionally showing up underprepared for the day's topic.
These are some of 2019's most memorable schoolings:
The View’s Meghan McCain gets schooled for insisting impeachment doesn’t matter
Meghan McCain argued Dec. 18 that impeachment was too politically unpopular to pursue, and host Whoopi Goldberg argued she was missing the point.
“I think Democrats will get what they want,” Goldberg said. “I think Democrats are going to get what they want, and I think that this is no longer about getting him out of office. It is putting on the record for everyone to see whether you agree with it or not, that we followed the directions that the founders have put down.”
The View’s audience goes wild as Meghan McCain gets repeatedly schooled by Dem candidate Jay Inslee
Washington state governor Jay Inslee didn't make much of a mark in the Democratic primary, but he stuck around long enough to drive "The View" audience into a frenzy by repeatedly fact-checking McCain on environmental policy.
McCain repeatedly pressed Inslee to justify the cost of the Green New Deal, and the governor patiently explained that her figures were inaccurate. “Well, this is a lot like the death panels you heard about in ObamaCare,” Inslee said. “We don’t have death panels and we don’t have $600,000 costs.”
“We’re talking about $51 trillion, the elimination of planes, the elimination of cows, a railway, no planes, I guess nobody can go to Hawaii anymore,” McCain fired back. “It doesn’t sound rational to me.”
Inslee explained those scenarios didn't sound rational because they weren't real, and McCain then started attacking individual environmentalists until Inslee once again set her straight. "Let’s get this straight,” Inslee said, as the audience erupted in sustained applause. “That is not proposed in the New Green Deal. I want to be real straight about this.”
The View’s Meghan McCain breaks down in tears after panel destroys her party's 'selective outrage' about anti-Semitism
The View’s Meghan McCain broke down in tears March 7 after her accusations of anti-Semitism — directed at Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar — were rebutted by co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin, whose grandfather was Jewish.
“You have to admit, Meghan, that it is disingenuous of the Republican Party to go after her, her point, when they are backing a president who is in bed with dictators committing human rights violations all over the world,” said Behar, as McCain started crying.
“I take this very personally,” McCain said, her voice breaking. “I don’t have family that is Jewish but Joe Lieberman and Hadas Lieberman are my family. I take the hate crimes raising in this country incredibly seriously, and I think what’s happening in Europe is really scary and I’m sorry if I’m getting emotional.”
“Just because I don’t technically have Jewish family that are blood related to me doesn’t mean that I don’t take this as seriously,” McCain went on, struggling to speak. “It is very dangerous, very dangerous and I think we collectively as Americans on both sides, and what Ilhan Omar is saying is very scary to me and very scary to a lot of people and I don’t think you have to be Jewish to recognize that.”
Meghan McCain snaps at View co-hosts for getting ‘cheap applause’ after she’s schooled on impeachment hearings
McCain exploded Nov. 22 after her fellow panelists criticized Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) for signaling he would not support impeachment.
“Democrats have gotten out over their skis so many times,” McCain said. “I remember coming on this show last year thinking (Robert) Mueller had this locked and loaded. Lock him up, put him in handcuffs, this is done. But the problem is there is a distrust, including from people like me, of who to believe at this point. He’s going to jail and getting impeached and for Republicans, it doesn’t matter because impeach the motherf*cker thing on Election Night?”
Hostin pointed to the Constitution, and McCain claimed she kept a copy on her nightstand, but her colleague brushed that aside. “The Constitution belongs to all of us whether we have it on our nightstand or not,” Hostin said. “In the Constitution — you can correct me — I believe bribery is listed as one of the impeachable offenses by the founding fathers.”
The View’s audience roars with delight as Meghan McCain gets schooled on the evils of Fox News
McCain challenged Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on May 30 to explain why she declined an invitation to take part in a Fox News town hall, and she protested the Democratic candidate's answer.
“Right now advertisers are getting really antsy about being with Fox on a regular basis because they don’t want their brands associated with them,” Warren told the panelists. “We do town halls and bring in a big Democratic audience to watch that night, and then the sales reps for Fox come out and say, ‘Oh, look at our high numbers and look how evenhanded we are.’ I’m just not going to give them a full hour to help raise money and help get credibility because they were willing to talk to me for an hour.”
The crowd cheered Warren, and McCain defended her former employer.
“I hear your explanation, I hear it,” McCain said, as the crowd continued cheering. “I was proud to work at Fox News. I don’t consider them a racist organization. I will say that there’s so many people that watch that are really good people, and I just think you’re alienating an audience, and for me, it just sounds like you don’t care about the people who watch Fox News.”
Meghan McCain schooled by half-asleep Julian Castro in immigration clash on The View
An exhausted Julian Castro busted McCain on June 27 for pushing “right-wing talking points” to misrepresent his position on immigration.
“With all due respect, sir,” McCain began, “I don’t think it’s a right-wing talking point when you are saying that someone who is doing something illegal, that there shouldn’t be ramifications, which at a certain point, if you become a general election candidate against Trump, you’re going to have to win over people like me who are skeptical of this.”
Castro dismissed her criticism as absurd.
“How can we possibly say that we have open borders when we have 654 miles of fences, thousands of personnel at the border?” said Castro, who hadn't slept since taking part in the first Democratic debate the previous night. “We have planes, we have boats, we have helicopters, we have guns. We have security cameras and states like my home state of Texas that put an extra $800 million into border security.”
“We can maintain a secure border,” Castro added, “and people are still subject to the law, but what I don’t believe we should do is criminalize desperation. We should criminalize crime, and the point that I made last night was, if we’re concerned about human trafficking or drug trafficking, we already have laws to criminalize that and hold people accountable for that.”
The View’s Meghan McCain swiftly schooled after blaming ‘lock him up’ chants on DC ‘swamp’
The president was met with boos and chants of “lock him up” at the World Series Game 5 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, and McCain argued Oct. 28 that the crowd was inherently anti-Trump.
“That’s in the middle of the Washington, D.C. swamp,” McCain said. “If he had been in, I don’t know, (an Arizona) Diamondbacks game, it might have been a different reaction.”
Her co-hosts began knocking down her argument one by one, saying the boos came from the cheap seats -- not the luxury boxes -- and from a diverse crowd.
“Just look — I think people are pissed at him,” said host Whoopi Goldberg. “People are legitimately angry at him.”
Meghan McCain gets repeatedly schooled after trying to downplay Trump impeachment
McCain expressed doubts Sept. 25 that Trump had committed impeachable offenses, and her co-hosts patiently walked her through the evidence.
“If asking for help from a foreign entity, for something of value to help him get elected in a campaign (isn’t) a violation of campaign finance law, I don’t know what is,” Hostin said. “It’s clearly illegal.”
